SONG CONTEST BLOG

Not as many as you’d like, I suspect.

It’s not because your music is ‘bad’.  In fact, people talk about bad music just as much as they do about good music.

So why isn’t there a larger conversation around you and your art?

Because you’re relying on your music.

There are 13 million music profiles on MySpace but only 4,000 artists on the rosters of the major music labels.

It’s fair to assume that a lot more than 4,000 artists are writing, producing and performing great songs.  Some of them are making ends meet on indie labels or on their own…

…But the sad truth is that most of them are working day jobs and you will probably never hear of them.

The competition is fierce.

If your strategy for success hinges on great songs, awesome production, and a tight live act alone, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment.

Here is an example of an artist who made it easy for music fans to talk about her, but she did NOT center the conversation around her music.

Instead, she created this video …and it worked!

I’m very impressed with April Smith.

She’s a sassy self-starter and strong marketer.  And her music and image is top notch.

She won me over with this 2 minute video:

(Click here to watch it on Kickstarter.com)

At the time of this posting, April Smith raised $10,575 from pledges on Kickstarter to finance her next record.

Duncan Freeman of BandMetrics turned me on to an online fundraising service called Kickstarter yesterday in a post he authored for Indie Music Tech.

Much like Sellaband and Slicethepie, artists use Kickstarter to raise funding for their recording and marketing activities by providing existing and prospective fans with an incentive to pledge.  Kickstarter is not limited to music though.  Projects are posted by photographers, designers, activists and doctors ? anyone with a great cause – with the aim to inspire Kickstarter’s community to pledge enough money to meet their project goals, be it to raise enough money to record an album or travel to a 3rd World country to volunteer.

The website is terrific and each project description is accompanied by a video detailing the cause, usually delivered or narrated by the fundraiser in a truly creative manner.

Fundraisers provide a variety of incentives to pledge depending on the pledge amount.  In music, this may translate to exclusive content, autographed apparel and limited edition merchandise but the model works across the board.  For instance, I discovered The Floating Doctors whose mission is to reduce the present and future burden of disease in the developing world, and to promote improvements in health care delivery worldwide.  For a pledge of $150 or more, the “backer” will receive a 11×14 print from the voyage and a crew portrait, personalized and signed by the whole crew.

As a “backer” on Kickstarter, you’re supporting a project because you believe in the cause and the people driving it.  You’re contributing to ensure that it gets done.  Your pledge is pivotal.

As an artist, Kickstarter is a unique platform to engage new fans and give them a reason to buy – to buy into your ideas, your music, your career – and develop new relationships founded on your strength of conviction.